The purpose of the Cancer:-Reaching Medically Underserved Populations: Low Literacy and Culturally Specific Barriers Symposium to be held on November 12, 1999 is threefold: 1) to identify literacy and cultural barriers which negatively impact on cancer prevention and treatment in minority and other medically underserved populations 2) to present strategies for developing research programs which address the specific needs of minority and medically underserved populations 3) to disseminate information regarding unique, effective programs which increase access to early detection, prevention and treatment programs targeting minority and medically underserved populations. The Symposium is sponsored by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center, Northwestern University Medical School, the Center for Outcomes Research and Education of Evanston Northwestern Healthcare, the Midwest Regional Research Center for the VA and the Chicago VA Health Care System-Lakeside Division. The impetus for the meeting was a 1999 report to Congress titled, Assessment of NIH Research and Programs for Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved , prepared by an Institute on Medicine task force. The report summarized that although significant research funding is aimed at this special population and despite the fact that cancer mortality seems to be declining in the total population, persistent disparities exist between ethnic minorities and the general public with regard to cancer incidence and mortality rates. The Symposium will be divided into two sessions: a morning session, Low Literacy, the Unrecognized Barriers to Cancer Treatment and Prevention and an afternoon session, Culturally Specific Interventions:: What Works, What Doesn t . Topics to be discussed include cultural barriers to cancer prevention and early detection, strategies for recruiting minority group members for clinical research, methodologies for assessing quality of life during cancer treatment and cancer screening programs in low income communities. Symposium speakers will include M. Alfred Haynes, MD, MPD, former President and Dean, Drew Meharry Morehouse Consortium Cancer Center (keynote speaker); Frank Baker, Ph.D., Director, Behavioral Research Center, American Cancer Society; Gilbert Friedell, MD, Director Emeritus, Markey Cancer Center; Terry Davis, Ph.D., Louisiana State University; Sara Moody-Thomas, MD, Stanley S. Scott Cancer Center, Louisiana State University; Deborah Erwin, Ph.D., Arkansas Cancer Treatment Center, Chanita Hughes, Ph.D., Georgetown University Medical Center; Susan Scrimshaw, Ph.D., Dean, School of Public Health, University of Illinois at Chicago, Anna Guiliano. Ph.D., Arizona Cancer Center and Brian Smedley, Ph.D., Institute on Medicine. Faculty from Northwestern University s Medical School will also be presenters.